The present invention relates to an improvement in mower-conditioners and is directed especially to a mower-conditioner of which the cutting width L is greater than the conditioning width l.
This machine possesses especially the advantage of being very compact and thus light, manoeuvrable and substantially less burdensome than conventional machines whose cutting width is substantially equal to the conditioning width. However, since in this machine the external cutting members are at least partially situated outside the conditioning zone, the fodder cut by the said members has real difficulties in being brought into the said zone even though the supports of these cutting members tend to direct this fodder towards the conditioning members. In fact at least one of said supports, which preferably are in the form of bottom-driven discs, is surmounted by an element of frusto-conical form. These discs, surmounted by their truncated cone, are driven in rotation in such direction that, seen from above in the direction of travel in the working position, the left outer disc surmounted by said frusto-conical element rotates in the clockwise direction while the right outer disc surmounted by said frusto-conical element rotates in the anti-clockwise direction. Despite the directions of rotation of the discs, which with their truncated cone tend to bring the cut fodder towards the interior of the machine, this fodder cannot suitably penetrate into the conditioning passage, if the latter has a width less than the cutting width. Thus the whole of the cut fodder is not conditioned, which of course is very troublesome since the unconditioned fodder dries much less quickly than that which has passed through the conditioning passage.
Moreover a part of the fodder cut by the end discs remains hooked to the edges of the conditioning passage, creates cloggings and is chopped by successive re-cutting.
The purpose of the present invention consists in remedying these drawbacks by proposing a device permitting the fodder, once cut by the cutting members of the outer discs of the mower-conditioner, to slide without hooking over the front edge of the conditioning passage, in order that the whole of the cut fodder may easily pass into the said passage for the purpose of being conditioned.